[2019]
[2019]
OUR FAMILY HOLIDAYS
0237 Pat’s Trips with IBM
In the 1980s Pat started to come with me on my trips with IBM. This was not a cheap way of seeing the world some might think. In fact it was quite expensive, since she had to travel on scheduled airlines. But it did allow us to see us a rather different side of life.
I have described elsewhere the trip to Budapest, where we stayed in the Hilton Hotel, built into the remains of the old monastery. It was one of the most beautiful hotels I had stayed in, and certainly one of the very few Hilton Hotels which is halfway acceptable. Indeed, when we did the city tour the highlight of that was a visit to the Hilton, so we went back to our rooms and had a rest for an hour! At that time the rest of Budapest was rather rundown. The pictures in the gallery for example desperately needed cleaning.
Then we went to Stockholm, also as described elsewhere. The only thing did we really did together, apart from walking round the streets, was to go to Skansen. This was fascinating, since they had brought together a large number of old Swedish buildings and re-erected them. Hence in one spot you could go round whole range of different types of country house. We also managed to see the Vasa, which was that time still being sprayed with the wax to impregnate the whole ship and preserve it. It was much better preserved than the Mary Rose which we saw later in the United Kingdom. The main reason we didn't see more was that the next day was the first of September, and Summer had officially ended; with everything, but everything, closing down for the winter!
The final of trip of this sort was to New York. I was due for meeting at Dayton in New Jersey, so we stayed in the Newark Holiday Inn. This was conveniently located between the entrance and exit of the Holland Tunnel. On the other hand it was not an especially salubrious area, and Pat was rather nervous about using the subway from Newark.
Pat went everywhere in New York and as far afield as Philadelphia and Washington. The one trip we did together was to Boston. We drove across country to Boston itself, which was about 300 miles away. In Boston we did the sites including the historic part of old Boston and the Harvard Business School, which I so nearly attended in the 1960s!
In reality there isn't much left and what is left is not by our standards very historic. On the other hand, Boston itself is a very beautiful and sophisticated city. The Faneuil Hall retail development, which pioneered the form of development which subsequently carried all round the world, was especially interesting.
On the way back we stayed at a suburban hotel, built as an adjunct to a mall, which was interesting in as much as regards our experience of what America and suburban life was like.
From there we went to Plymouth to see the Plymouth Rock. You might think, with all historic importance attached to the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers there, that it might be spectacular. In fact is quite a small boulder protected by what looks like a rather rundown bandstand.
We then went on to Cape Cod, having a meal in Hyannisport. It was an interesting little town, but the emphasis was on 'little'; and it did not live up to our idea of what the millionaires, who were supposed to pass through it on the way to the Cape, might expect.
We then drove back to New York, through Providence, Rhode Island. In New York we did a number of the usual things, though mostly Pat did them; since I myself was down in New Jersey at meetings.
But I do remember phoning home from Central Park with a group of Hare Krishna monks chanting in the background. We got hold of Sarah - and she said everything was going fine; though of course it wasn't, since Miles' tutor had taken him for a dirty week at the Swiss Cottage Hilton - but we didn't find out about this until more than a decade later!
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